A/N: So I've been re-watching some Hook/Emma scenes and this kind of just came to me. It's just a tiny little one-shot. Can be seen as Emma's I love you at the end of season 5 or just anytime from now on (let's hope)!


The Times


The first time he tells her he loves her is the night she puts his heart back. She tries to pretend it's just one of those 'I love yous' that happens after really great first time sex, but even as she pulls him closer again and kisses him, she knows he meant it. She can't say it back though. Even with everything they've been through, she just can't.

The second time is on the 'talking phone' and she thinks it slips out without him thinking or meaning to. The quiet that follows is deafening. She opens her mouth, to say it back or something else, she isn't sure but before she gets a word out he ends the call with a, "Talk to you later, love."

The third time, it's not an actual 'I love you'. It's his confession that she is his happy ending. The 'don't you know Emma?' and that look in his eyes, still makes her feel so many emotions, too many, when she thinks about it, even after all this time.

The first time she tells him it's not in the loft, even though after she wishes it had been. That she'd been brave enough to have been able to tell him without some life threatening disaster just around the corner. But she's not brave. Not with her emotions anyway. Slay a dragon? No problem. Tell the man she loves that she loves him? Not until she's about to let herself be consumed with darkness.

When she was the dark one, she found it strange that it's easier to tell him, easier to feel it too somehow, than before. Afterwards, once she's Emma again, she realizes it wasn't easier. It was just being the dark one, everything was different and feelings weren't the same. She wants to talk to someone about that. About love not being the same as the dark one, but knows Killian doesn't want to relive those memories. And she's sure as heck not going to talk to Gold about it.

Now when she tells him it's both scary and not scary. She can do it without the world ending. Without a reason. She can just tell him. And so she does.

"I love you."